


My Job Here Is Done

by knight_tracer, the24thkey writes (the24thkey)



Category: Stray Kids (Band)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Magical Girls, Audio Format: M4B, Audio Format: MP3, Audio Format: Streaming, Collaboration, Community: pod_together, M/M, Podfic, Podfic & Podficced Works, Podfic Length: 1-1.5 Hours, fighting evil by moonlight
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-09-06
Updated: 2020-09-06
Packaged: 2021-03-06 14:40:55
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 10,929
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/26140540
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/knight_tracer/pseuds/knight_tracer, https://archiveofourown.org/users/the24thkey/pseuds/the24thkey%20writes
Summary: The trials and tribulations of Lee Felix, magical girl.Written and recorded as a party favor for pod_together 2020
Relationships: Lee Felix/Seo Changbin
Comments: 17
Kudos: 51
Collections: Pod_Together 2020





	My Job Here Is Done

**Author's Note:**

> Author's notes: This plot bunny was just sitting in my drafts for ages until knight_tracer approached me about doing pod_together, and I really can't thank her enough for her trust and encouragement and for letting me experience what it's like to have someone perform words that I wrote, holy shit!! 
> 
> This story was mainly inspired by Cardcaptor Sakura, but I also watched a couple episodes of the original Sailor Moon and Precure (and, uh, one ep of Madoka <.<) as research/refreshers/procrastination.
> 
> As a quick acknowledgment, I am aware that there are fics with similar premises in this fandom, though I haven’t read any of them to avoid accidentally copying anything. So if you're in the mood for even more magical girls, good news for you! There's more out there :D 
> 
> With that out of the way, I hope you enjoy this story! It was specifically written to be recorded, so please make sure to listen to the podfic! <3
> 
> Podficcer's Notes: I really appreciate the24thkey writing something so fun for me to record and for enabling my swift descent into all things Stray Kids over the last 3 months! The24thkey was also an excellent beta and provided great encouragement. Also, general disclaimer: I don't speak Korean and used a few youtube videos to get the names as accurate as possible.

Podfic Length: 1:10:15

Download Links: [mp3](https://knight-tracer.parakaproductions.com/Podfic/My%20Job%20Here%20is%20Done.mp3) | [m4b](https://knight-tracer.parakaproductions.com/Podfic/My%20Job%20Here%20is%20Done.m4b)

* * *

Felix plans his confession for a Friday.

"I'm gonna do it," he says, staring over at the baseball field and trying to ignore how hard his hands are shaking.

"You are?" Seungmin asks, with an admittedly justified amount of skepticism.

Felix has planned a lot of confessions for a lot of Fridays, mostly because if he gets rejected, he can just hole up in his room for the entire weekend to wallow in his misery.

Felix is very good at planning. The problem is just that he's not very good at following through.

"I'm just saying," Seungmin starts, but before he can, in fact, say anything, Hyunjin elbows him in the side, hard.

He doubles over, wheezing, but Hyunjin completely ignores him in favour of giving Felix an energetic double thumbs up.

"You can do it! Fighting!"

Felix winces. He appreciates Hyunjin's enthusiasm, but he'd also appreciate it if Hyunjin kept his voice down. They’re already getting curious looks from all the other students passing by.

"Fighting," Felix repeats weakly, wiping his sweaty hands on his school uniform and taking a deep breath before he nods, determined.

"Wish me luck," he says, gripping the straps of his backpack and stalking over to where Seo Changbin is sitting in the grass, already changed out of his baseball uniform but still catching his breath after practice.

His hair is dishevelled, and he’s pushed up the sleeves of his shirt and loosened his tie, and Felix can feel his pulse speed up at the sight of him.

It’s kind of ridiculous, but Felix has had a crush on Seo Changbin for going on two years now, which is almost as long as he’s known him. They’re not in the same grade, and they don’t really run in the same social circles, but Changbin is a good friend of Felix’s brother, so Felix sees a lot of him at home.

The first time Chris had brought Changbin over, Felix had been kind of intimidated, because that’s just the effect Changbin has on people. But any reservations he might have had at first were quickly forgotten when it turned out that Changbin was actually really cool and sweet and funny, and kind of a dork, and always super nice to Felix even though he's just his friend's little brother.

Also Changbin has, like, really nice arms. Felix is acutely aware of this fact thanks to the one and only time he joined Chris and Changbin for their regular work out — which was a mistake for a variety of reasons, but mostly because the sight of Changbin in a sleeveless shirt is entirely too much for Felix's heart.

Shaking himself out of that particular train of thought, Felix turns back towards his friends one last time to see Hyunjin waving wildly, and Seungmin three steps away, pretending he doesn't know him. It’s a scene so familiar that just looking at it allows Felix to calm down a bit, and he laughs and waves back at them before he continues on his way.

"Hyung!" he calls out as he draws closer, and Changbin turns at the sound, an easy grin on his face when he spots Felix.

"Lix, hey," he says, pushing himself up off the ground and stretching as he does. "About to head home? Your brother is still talking to Coach Park, if you're looking for him."

"Ah, no," Felix says, laughing nervously. "I mean, yeah, I'm going home, but I was actually, uhm…looking for you?"

"Me?" Changbin asks, and he looks surprised for a second, but then his lips twitch into a sly smile. “Ah, I knew it. I’m your favourite hyung, right? You can admit it.”

Changbin is obviously joking, but Felix can feel his ears growing hot anyway, because, well. Changbin isn’t wrong.

“I…wanted to talk to you?” Felix says, floundering. He had an entire speech planned out, one that made it through revisions upon revisions, but he can’t seem to remember a single word of it right now. “Uh, I mean…”

Maybe it’s the obvious nerves in Felix’s voice, or maybe it’s the way he can’t quite bring himself to meet Changbin’s eyes, but either way Changbin grows somber in an instant, lowering his voice.

“Hey,” he says, nudging Felix’s chin up with his knuckles, “You know you can always talk to me, yeah? Whatever it is. I promise I won’t tell your brother, if that’s what you’re worried about.”

And this is what Felix loves about Changbin — he may joke around, but he’s serious and earnest and so goddamn sincere when it counts. He's a great listener, too, and he never gets impatient when Felix struggles to find the right words in Korean.

Felix doesn’t know if Changbin will ever return his feelings, but he does know, with absolute certainty, that Changbin cares about him. Getting turned down would suck, yeah, but even if that happens, Felix will at least be able to let go of the weight of this secret that he’s been carrying with him for ages. And no matter what, he’ll still get to be by Changbin’s side as his friend. He’s sure of it.

With newfound resolve, Felix steels himself and looks Changbin right in the eyes.

"Hyung, I—" he starts, and that's when there's the deafening sound of an explosion, startling him so badly that it would have sent him stumbling to the ground if not for Changbin's hands on his arms, steadying him.

"What the fuck was that?" Changbin asks, face twisted in concern. "Are you alright?"

"I'm fine," Felix says quickly, turning to look into the distance, beyond the school gates and towards the city, where a plume of fire and smoke lights up the late afternoon twilight. On his shoulders, Felix’s backpack begins to shake.

"I have to go," he says, barely even looking at Changbin as he slips out of his grasp. “Bye hyung!”

“Wait, Felix—” he hears Changbin say behind him, but he’s already running, weaving through the crowds of students, calling out breathless apologies whenever he bumps into someone.

It gets easier once he’s past the gate, and he’s full-on sprinting down the road towards the source of the explosion when the tell-tale wave of demonic energy washes over him, letting him know that he’s on the right track.

There’s a squeak from his backpack when he swings it around on one shoulder, and Felix curses under his breath as he tries to open the zipper while still running at full speed. When he finally succeeds, a small, angry blur of white and yellow shoots up and out, knocking right into Felix’s head.

“Ouch!” he yelps, stumbling to a halt. “Innie, what the hell?”

Innie huffs, his big fox ears twitching in irritation while his tiny wings work overtime to keep him afloat. Considering he looks like a cute, kitten-sized plushie his glare really shouldn’t be as intimidating as it is.

“Next time let me out before you start running,” he complains, shaking imaginary dust off his head. “I was almost squashed to death by your books.”

Felix winces. “Sorry, Innie.”

It really isn’t ideal, but they have yet to find a better method to hide Innie when they’re out and about, and staying hidden in Felix’s room all day isn’t an option, either. They can’t risk Felix being alone when something like this goes down.

“Come on, get moving,” Innie says, pulling at Felix’s sleeve. “The faster we get this over with, the sooner you can get back to your Changmin.”

“Changbin,” Felix corrects absent-mindedly as he falls back into a light jog, trying to follow the aura of demonic energy to its center.

The trail of destruction makes it easy, and he hears it before he sees it — a booming laugh so stereotypically evil that it could come right out of a childrens’ cartoon. It sends a chill down Felix’s spine however, and when he rounds the corner and finally lays eyes on the monster, he falters, dropping to a crouch to hide behind an upturned food stall.

It looks like one of those stone lions they have at temples come to life, though it’s way bigger than any statue Felix has ever seen. There’s a sinking feeling in the pit of his stomach, and he flinches when it crushes a car under its foot, the metal giving way with a screeching noise.

Felix wouldn't say he was unprepared for a life of fighting evil. He likes helping people. He's a Taekwondo black belt. But he wasn't prepared for the monsters and the magic and the mortal peril, and the way he was just suddenly thrust into all of it didn’t exactly help matters.

The day he found the key that awoke his powers, the key that awoke the sleeping guardian of Miroh, he had no idea how it would change his life. He never asked for any of this, but now he has to deal with it.

“What are you doing?” Innie hisses, pulling him out of his daze. “You need to transform before it sees you!”

“Yeah,” Felix says, shaking his head as if to dispel the fear paralyzing his entire body. It doesn’t really work, but Innie is right. He needs to hurry.

Felix digs into his collar to pull out his key pendant, the metal cool against the palm of his hand, and then he takes a deep breath and thrusts it up into the air.

"Unveil!"

No matter how many times he goes through it, the transformation remains an incredibly strange experience, flooding his body with power and overwhelming his senses with blinding golden light.

He's been trying to convince Innie to record it, because he really wants to know what it looks like from the outside, but Innie is wilful at best and also barely big enough to hold up Felix’s phone, so he would probably just end up dropping it.

So all Felix knows is the way he looks after the light fades — the pink hair, the white mask, the stars dotting his cheeks, and the soft fabric and frills of his uniform. The key in his hand has been replaced by a white and red scepter, the compass at its center spinning wildly from their proximity to danger.

There’s still smoke rising high into the sky, and the monster is on the move, shaking the earth with every single step. Felix needs to stop it before it goes on a rampage throughout the entire city.

“Alright,” he says, and determination courses through him as he jumps up onto the food stall, his scepter gripped tightly in his hand and Innie at his shoulder. “Let’s do this.”

Hours later, Felix's hair is singed, his face is soot-stained, and his skirt has a really ugly rip along the hemline, again.

He sinks to the ground in an ungraceful mess of limbs, tries to steady his breathing, and looks at an equally bedraggled Innie.

"I fucking quit."

"You can't quit," Minho says, and then sucks noisily at his bubble tea straw.

Felix sinks down further in his seat, his legs almost knocking over the backpack Innie is sleeping in.

"I know," he whines. "The fate of the world depends on it, or whatever."

Felix would really like to know why the fate of the world has to be decided in South Korea of all places, but thinking about the international implications gives him a headache. There must be magical girls in other countries as well, right? Maybe they can unionize.

He has actually met others like him before, like Momo-sunbaenim and her team, who left him a bit star-struck when he'd seen them fight, but for the most part it's just him and Minho in their corner of the city.

"Where were you yesterday, anyway?" Felix asks.

"Busy," Minho says, unconcerned, and Felix sighs, dropping his head back against the booth and closing his eyes.

He can’t even bring himself to be mad at Minho, who has been going out of his way to help Felix ever since they first met.

It was pure luck that Minho found him, drawn to the scene by the commotion and expecting to face one of their demonic adversaries, only to stumble over Felix instead, who was near hysterical in the aftermath of his first ever fight and still not entirely certain he wasn't just having a really intense, really vivid nightmare.

Felix probably would have figured everything out on his own once he stopped screaming anytime Innie tried to talk to him, but having Minho there to clean him up and calm him down and explain stuff to him made things a lot easier.

Though 'explain' might be a bit of an overstatement, because basically Minho was just like, congrats on becoming a magical girl or whatever, and Felix was like, but…I'm not a girl? And then Minho pulled that face he makes when he pretends to be annoyed with you but is actually really enjoying himself and was like, it's a gender neutral job description, _god_ , get with the times, kid.

At least Felix is pretty sure that's how the conversation went. He was kind of busy freaking out at the time, so his memory is a bit hazy.

In any case, Minho was under no obligation to stick around, but Felix is glad he did. He has Innie, of course, who’s there to provide him with support every step of the way, but Innie is also a magical being from another dimension and, as such, has little understanding of what it’s like to juggle everyday life with the sudden added responsibility of defending humanity from monsters hellbent on its destruction.

Basically Felix needed a mentor, someone who could help him train and navigate this strange new part of his life, and other than Minho no one was going to pick up the slack.

Now, nearly 3 months later, Felix would like to think that he's a pretty decent magical girl, as far as these things go. He's still a bit unsettled about having to kill sentient beings, and he feels bad about lying to his family whenever he sneaks out to go fight evil by moonlight, or whatever. But he likes having a purpose, and likes knowing that he can protect the people of his city, even if most of them will never know about it.

"It's magic," Minho had told him with a shrug, when Felix asked why no one else ever seemed to remember the giant monsters or the colorful people fighting against them, despite the destruction left in their path. "Something to do with their aura of evil or whatever. And a bit of psychology too, I guess. Human brains just aren't meant to process these kinds of things, so they either forget about it entirely or come up with easier explanations. Y'know, gas leaks or technical malfunctions or the like."

There are so many things that Felix doesn’t understand about all of this — why he of all people was given these powers, or where their enemies come from and why they’re attacking this world — but he’s already so incredibly tired of it all.

"Anyway, who's that guy over there and why is he staring at you?" Minho asks, and Felix blinks his eyes open, turning to follow Minho’s line of sight.

“Who?” he asks, confused, but then he sees a familiar figure over by the entrance, dressed in all black, and when their eyes meet Felix’s breath hitches in his throat.

"Changbinnie-hyung?" he says, his voice loud enough to cut through the noise of conversations going on around them and to draw the attention of the entire establishment. He flushes, huddling back down into the booth, but Changbin is already making his way over towards them.

“Subtle,” Minho comments idly, and Felix only has a handful of seconds to shut him up before Changbin is at their table.

“Felix, hi,” he says, his hands shoved deep into the pockets of his jacket. He seems a bit hesitant to approach them, but the smile he gives Felix is genuine enough. “Thought that was you.”

“Haha, yeah,” Felix says, tugging at the strings of his hoodie nervously. “Uh, I didn’t expect to see you here, hyung.”

The café they’re in is nice and all, but it’s also really expensive and chock-full of couples on instagram-worthy dates. It’s not a place Felix would choose to frequent himself, but Minho refuses to meet him anywhere else. He says it’s because their tea is the best, but Felix knows it’s only because Minho lives right down the street and can’t be bothered to walk more than 5 minutes.

He really is surprised to run into Changbin here of all places, but before they can make any more awkward small talk, Minho inserts himself into the conversation.

"Yongbok-ah," he drawls in a way that's precisely calculated to set Felix's teeth on edge, because Minho knows Felix doesn't like that name, damnit. "Aren't you going to introduce me?"

Felix would, except he’s not entirely sure what he should introduce him as, since he can’t exactly tell Changbin that Minho is his magical girl mentor. Should he just call him a friend? They are friends, right? Kinda?

Before he can make up his mind, Changbin nods at Minho and says, "Seo Changbin. And you are?"

Felix blinks, a bit taken aback by Changbin's tone of voice. He’s never known Changbin to be anything but unfailingly polite when meeting new people, but the way he tilts his chin up as he stares at Minho is strangely hostile.

Minho remains unfazed, a lazy half-smile on his face as he takes Changbin in. “Lee Minho,” he says. “How nice to meet one of Felix’s friends.”

“Sure,” Changbin says. He looks between Felix and Minho, and Felix can’t quite decipher the expression on his face, but he seems almost uncertain when he speaks next. “So, what are you guys doing here?”

“Oh, you know,” Minho starts, and he’s probably going to say something perfectly innocuous, but Felix panics, kicking Minho under the table and blurting out, "We were just about done!"

“Ow,” Minho says pointedly, but he doesn’t protest. Technically they got together to talk strategy and to schedule more training sessions, but all they’ve really done is talk shit and eat a whole lot of over-priced cake.

Minho probably has important university student things to do anyway, so Felix should really stop taking up his time, right? Right. And it’s not like Felix has any plans for the rest of the day, so he might as well take advantage of this chance encounter.

“Binnie-hyung, do you maybe want to—” Felix starts, only to freeze when he feels an unmistakable wave of demonic energy hit him out of nowhere.

Across from him, Minho is sitting stock-still as he stares out the window, clearly having felt the same thing. Neither of them moves for a long moment, caught up in the tension, until there’s a small but distinct noise from the messenger bag that sits next to Minho and they both jump.

“Did your bag just meow?” Changbin asks. Felix almost forgot he was still there for a second.

“No,” Minho lies, staring Changbin down as he takes one last noisy sip of bubble tea. Then he sets down the empty cup and grabs his suspiciously cat-shaped bag. “Nice to meet you, Seo Changbin, but we really have to go. Come on, Felix.”

Felix scrambles to grab his own belongings and almost stumbles right into Changbin in his haste to get out of the booth.

“Everything alright?” Changbin asks, clearly confused by their hasty exit.

“Sorry,” Felix says, steadying himself on the edge of the table. “We have a— uh, there’s a thing we need to do—”

“Felix!” Minho yells from where he’s already holding the café door open, and Felix winces, shooting Changbin an apologetic look. “See you at school,” he says quickly, and then he’s running off without waiting to hear Changbin’s reply.

Minho drags Felix down the street and into a back-alley, clearly on high alert, but he doesn’t let that stop him from making snide comments.

“Didn’t know that was your type,” he says, and Felix flushes.

“Shut up,” he mutters, one hand fishing out his pendant while he struggles to open his backpack with the other.

"No, I get it. It was cute, the way he was about to bite my head off for taking his rightful place."

"What?" Felix frowns. Sometimes he really doesn't understand a word Minho is saying, and he doesn't think it's because of a lack of fluency in Korean on his part.

Minho doesn’t elaborate, just sets down his bag so Soonie can climb out of it, dignified as ever. She stretches and moves just like a real cat would, but the way she looks at Felix reminds him that she’s anything but.

Soonie is a guardian, just like Innie, though she’s chosen to take a form that makes it easier for her to blend in. She’s also been in this dimension much longer than Innie, which she never lets him forget.

Innie himself blinks groggily as he pokes his head out of Felix’s backpack, still half-asleep. “What’s going on?”

“Don’t know yet,” Felix says, but Soonie jerks her head up to the sky, her tail flicking back and forth.

“Up there,” she says, and when Felix follows her gaze, he sees it. It looks gigantic even from this distance, the shape of it blocking the sun as it flies overhead.

“Showtime,” Minho says, and he and Felix share a grim look before they grab their keys in unison.

Any soreness that Felix still felt from last night’s fight disappears as the transformation moves through him, and he breathes a bit easier when the light fades, endless reserves of power at his fingertips.

Next to him, Minho rolls his shoulders and swings his staff a couple of times to warm up. His uniform doesn't look much different from Felix's own aside from the purple colour scheme and one or two details — boots that stop at the knee instead of the ankle, longer sleeves, and an honestly kind of excessive amount of ribbons.

Felix squints up at the sky, and he’s just about to ask how they're supposed to get all the way up there when Minho slams his staff against the ground, which is all that it takes for wings to sprout from its center.

It hovers in the air, barely swaying when Minho jumps onto it, Soonie already comfortably seated on his shoulder.

“Come on,” Minho says, reaching down to take Felix’s hand, and Felix barely has enough time to say, “Wait, seriously?” and grab onto Innie before they’re going up, fast.

Felix screams, which is a bit embarrassing, but at least it’s drowned out by the wind rushing past, and it doesn’t take longer than 30 seconds before they land on the roof of an office building that stands higher than all its neighbours. Felix tumbles to the ground, legs shaking, but he doesn’t have time to complain about the rough ride before the entire building shakes with the landing of the winged monster they saw from below.

It kind of looks like a giant cockatoo — white feathers except for the yellow crest on its head, a sharp beak and sharper claws — and as it laughs its obnoxious cartoon villain laugh, Felix is already fed up with it. He can’t believe he missed a prime opportunity to ask out Changbin because of a stupid bird.

"Foolish mortals!" it screeches, "Our Lord of Chaos will—"

"Oh shut up," Felix snaps and kicks it right in the beak.

He can hear Minho laughing somewhere behind him, but Felix doesn’t pause to check his position. They don't always fight together, but they’ve done it often enough by now that they move with and around each other seamlessly. It’s good to have backup, and Minho has both more power and more experience than him, so Felix is much more relaxed than he was last night.

After a couple of minutes he can already tell that their opponent is no match for their combined strength. He grins, almost giddy with the feeling of it as he lands a series of kicks one after another, easily dodging the shower of dagger-like feathers that is sent his way.

Of course, he should have known better than to think this fight would go smoothly for once. It’s a careless mistake, but Felix messes up his landing and trips, catching himself on his hands and hissing at the feeling of rough concrete against his skin. He spares a moment to be annoyed at the tears in his gloves — shouldn’t magical clothing be more sturdy than this? — but regrets it immediately when he hears Minho yell, “Felix! Watch out!”

He whips his head up, eyes widening when he realizes that the monster is closing in on him. It’s already way too close for him to move out of the way, so he screws his eyes shut and jerks up his arms to protect his head, and for a split second, he really thinks it’s going to hit him.

But then there’s a sound of impact and a screech, and Felix blinks his eyes open, confused and untouched.

There’s someone standing in front of him, their back towards him, lit up by the sun shining into Felix’s eyes. It’s a guy with bleached blond hair, wearing a deep blue suit, and when he turns his head to the side with a wild grin, Felix can see that the upper half of his face is hidden by a mask much like his own.

"Heck yeah!" he crows, "Hyung, did you see that?"

Felix stares at his saviour, confused, until he realizes that the guy is talking to Minho.

Minho doesn't react, instead taking his staff and unleashing a furious series of attacks that only ends when the bird monster lies plucked and unmoving on the ground. He doesn’t even call out the name of his finishing move, even though he usually revels in ridiculous stuff like that, and Felix winces, because Minho must be pissed.

Suit-guy lets out a low whistle, clearly thinking the same thing, and he and Felix share an unexpected look of understanding for two people who’ve never met each other before.

“Yikes,” Felix whispers, and suit-guy snorts, offering him a hand up off the ground before he bounds over to Minho.

Felix stays in place, taking a moment to brush off his skirt, and that’s when Innie comes flying towards him, battering his little fists against Felix’s shoulder.

“You idiot!” he says, sounding about three seconds away from crying. “That was dangerous!”

Felix grimaces, petting Innie’s head gently. “I’m sorry, Innie,” he says. “It won’t happen again.”

“Yeah, it better hadn’t,” Minho says, and Felix looks up to see him stalking towards them, clearly annoyed. Felix feels pretty bad for making him worry, but he can’t really offer Minho anything but a sheepish smile.

“Come on, it worked out fine,” his saviour says, and with the adrenaline slowly fading from his system, Felix finally has a clear enough head to question where the hell this guy even came from and why Minho doesn’t seem surprised to see him.

"Uh, who's this?" Felix asks.

“You may call me J.One,” the guy says, at the same time as Minho says, “This is Jisung.”

"Hyung!" J.One, or rather Jisung, protests, taking off his mask. "You're ruining my mystique!"

Felix stares at him, surprised. Jisung doesn’t look much older than him, his youth made even more obvious by the way his cheeks puff up when he pouts at Minho.

Minho just smirks at him before he turns back to Felix.

"Jisung is kind of like us," he says with a wiggly hand gesture. “Probably. We don’t really know where his powers came from.”

“Oh, cool,” Felix says, and then his brain catches up to the information he has just received. "Hey, wait a minute. Are you saying I could be wearing a suit instead of this?" he demands, gesturing up and down his body.

"Are you disrespecting the skirt?" Minho asks in obvious disapproval.

"What? No! The skirt is cute! I'm just saying, I'd appreciate some more protection. Do you even know how many times I've scraped my knees this past month?"

He had to tell Chris he'd started playing soccer with his friends to cover up for all the bruises on his legs. Soccer! Felix hates ball sports!

"Well, I think the skirt is great," Minho sniffs, clearly not listening to a word Felix is saying.

"It does make your legs look amazing, hyung," Jisung says dutifully, giving him a thumbs up before he looks at Felix expectantly.

"So, do I get a name, or…"

“Oh, sure,” Felix says, but it's Minho who steps back in to finish the introduction.

"This is Felix," he says, waving a hand towards him, "And that flying fox thing is Jeongin. Innie, for short."

"Ooh, you get a magical sidekick, too!" Jisung says, taking a step closer to look at Innie with eyes so bright they’re almost sparkling.

"Sidekick?" Innie yelps, puffing up in indignation. "I am more powerful than you could ever imagine!"

Felix holds him back before he flies at Jisung's face in a fit of rage. It’s true that Innie is powerful, but he still hasn’t fully adjusted to the strain that merely existing in this world is putting on his magic. It’s a bit of a sore spot for him.

“Innie is the guardian of Miroh,” Felix hurries to explain, but all he gets in response to that is a blank smile from Jisung.

"I have absolutely no idea what that means," Jisung says, though he doesn't sound particularly bothered by it. "Is that part of your magical girl origin story?"

“You...don’t have a guardian?” Felix asks, confused, but Jisung just shrugs.

“Yeah man, I don't really get all those cool magical powers that you guys have, it’s mostly just enhanced strength and senses. I can summon flowers though," he adds as an afterthought, snapping his fingers and summoning a red rose out of nowhere.

"Whoa," Felix breathes, "That's so cool." Then he frowns. "What is it good for though?"

Jisung scratches his cheek as he contemplates the flower in his hand. "Uh, I don't really know. They're pretty? Maybe if you throw them hard enough you could take someone’s eye out…"

"Anyway," Minho interrupts them pointedly, and there’s a gust of wind as he drops his transformation, power leaving him with a shimmer of golden light until he once again looks like a typical student, right down to the tired look on his face. Soonie wanders over from where she was inspecting the slowly fading remains of their adversary, winding through Minho’s legs as he pats down his messy hair.

“This was fun and all, but I have a paper due tomorrow, so let’s wrap it up.”

“Yeah,” Felix agrees, because he can already feel the exhaustion settling in. He stretches his neck from side to side, winces at the way his bones crack. Innie isn’t doing much better, flopping down on top of Felix’s head to rest his wings. “Let’s go home.”

“It was nice to meet you!” Jisung says, holding out a fist for Felix to bump. “I can't believe hyung never told me about you."

"Yeah, he never mentioned you to me, either," Felix says, and Jisung gasps dramatically, clutching at his heart.

"Not even once? Hyung, I thought we had something special! Do I mean nothing to you?"

Felix giggles and Minho's lips twitch even as he rolls his eyes.

"This is exactly why I didn't want you two to meet," he says. "I can already tell you're going to be the death of me."

"You know you love us," Jisung says. “We’re your favourite magical apprentices in the entire world.” He pauses for a second before he laughs, “Well, not like there’s anyone else, right?"

Minho is already walking away, but he waves a dismissive hand over his shoulder as he says, "Nah, it's just the four of you."

"Yeah, that's what I— Wait, what do you mean 'four'? Hyung! Get back here!"

Felix really thought working up the courage to ask Changbin out would be the hardest part. But here he is, his mind more than made up, and every single time he tries to make his move he just keeps. Getting. Interrupted.

One day it's giant bats attacking city hall, the next it's an infestation of snake monsters in the sewers, and before Felix knows an entire month has passed and he's still no closer to getting Changbin to be his boyfriend.

The closest he does get is one day after school, when he lucks out and runs into Changbin on his way home. Changbin insists on accompanying him, even though it means he’ll be taking a detour to his place, and then it’s just the two of them walking along the street in the dwindling afternoon light.

Well, the two of them and Innie, but by now Felix has resigned himself to the fact that Innie is going to be witness to all of his most embarrassing moments.

Felix should be over the moon about this unexpected one-on-one time with Changbin, but he’s so paranoid that he can’t even enjoy it. He’s jumping at every noise and shadow, convinced that they’ll be attacked any moment now, and his mind is so preoccupied that he can barely pay attention to a word Changbin is saying.

Changbin clearly notices, too, because he reaches out to pull Felix to a stop, a frown on his face as he says, "Lix, are you okay?"

Felix blinks at him, torn out of his thoughts.

“What?” he asks, turning to face Changbin. They’re blocking the entire sidewalk like this, but it doesn’t really matter. It’s a residential neighbourhood, and there’s barely anyone else around.

“I'm here for you. You know, that, right?” Changbin says, taking Felix’s hand and threading their fingers together. “Whatever it is, you can always tell me. I promise.”

Changbin’s words are imploring, but his smile is soft and encouraging, and Felix feels his heartbeat going into overdrive. He licks his lips, squeezing Changbin’s hand. Maybe he can do this after all. Maybe he can do it right here and now.

“Hyung, I—” he starts, only to be interrupted by his phone ringing in his backpack. He and Changbin jump apart, startled, and then Felix groans, closing his eyes. Is it really too much to ask for five uninterrupted minutes so he can get this over with?

“Sorry,” he says, “Ignore that.”

Changbin shakes his head. “No, go ahead. What if it’s important?”

Felix hesitates, but his phone keeps ringing, and Innie is once again starting to kick him through the fabric of his backpack, so he relents and digs out his phone. The moment he sees the caller ID he tenses, turning away from Changbin and accepting the call.

“Jisung?” he asks, already on high alert. They exchanged numbers only recently, and while they text a lot (mostly just memes that Minho is too boring to appreciate), calls are reserved for emergencies.

“Hey bro!” Jisung’s voice comes from the other end of the line, sounding faint and out of breath. “Bit of a crab problem over here, do you think you could lend me a hand?”

Felix frowns. “A what? Where?”

“Over at the— Holy shit, watch where you’re putting those fucking claws you fucking—”

“Jisung?” Felix says, more than a bit concerned by now.

“I’m good!” Jisung replies, sounding decidedly not good. “Just head over to the river, alright? You can’t miss it, I promise.”

“Hold on, I’m coming,” Felix promises, and he’s already turning to make a run for it when he notices Changbin, still standing behind him and giving Felix a curious look.

“Everything alright?” he asks, and Felix freezes, stuck in a moment of indecision.

“Yeah, no, I need to— My friend has a— crabs!” he blurts out, and then immediately wishes he could take it back, because what the fuck? Innie snickers, and Felix clears his throat to cover the sound, hoping desperately that Changbin didn’t notice that.

“Your friend has…” Changbin repeats slowly, uncomprehending, but then he shakes his head. "I'll go ahead then. Take care, Felix. Text me once you get home safe?"

"Huh? Sure," Felix says, confused but happy for any excuse to contact Changbin. "I will. See you around!"

He waits until Changbin is out of sight to duck into a backstreet, just to make sure that no one sees him when he transforms.

“Your Changjin is acting kind of weird,” Innie says as he pops his head out of Felix’s backpack.

“Changbin,” Felix corrects automatically. “And what do you mean, weird?”

“I don’t know. Weird,” Innie repeats, and even though that clarifies nothing, Felix kind of gets what he means. Part of him wonders if Changbin knows, if maybe Changbin wants him to confess, and the hope that bubbles up inside him is hard to hold at bay.

Right now he needs to focus though, because Jisung needs his help. So he tries to push aside any thoughts of Changbin and almost succeeds, but he can't quite stop the smile on his face and the spring to his step as he transforms and takes off in the direction of the river.

"What did I do to deserve this," Felix whines not even 5 minutes later, shaking his wet hair out of his eyes even as he dodges the claws of the giant crab monster that's still half submerged in the river. At least he doesn’t really get cold as long as he maintains his transformation; otherwise he’d worry about getting sick.

"Ate too much seafood in a past life?" Jisung suggests as he runs past. He’s fast, agile, but he’s still having some trouble getting close enough to hit the monster’s weak underbelly.

“Ugh,” is all Felix says in reply, too busy avoiding yet another attack. They’re at a stalemate of sorts, neither side managing to do much damage, and he’s seriously fed up with this.

“Felix, your scepter!” Innie says, and Felix’s eyes widen in realization.

“Oh, right!”

He still hasn’t unlocked its full potential and his control isn’t very good yet, so it really only works about 50% of the time, but he might as well give it a try now. He grabs his scepter in both hands, thrusting it out in front of him, only to falter, because he still hasn't thought of a cool name for this move yet. Shit.

"Something something...beam!" he calls out, which, alright, obviously that's just a working title, but it's enough to call forth a blast of energy so strong it almost knocks him off his feet. He braces against it, and for a moment he’s genuinely ecstatic that it actually _worked_.

The attack proves to be a bit too effective, however, and that’s how Felix ends up drenched not only in water, but also a whole number of other things he does not care to identify.

“Gross,” he mutters, wiping his face. Innie, who managed to hide behind Felix’s back just in time to remain spotless, doesn’t even bother to hide the fact that he’s laughing at him.

“You shut up,” Felix says, flinging a bit of mystery goo at him, and Innie lets out an indignant shriek when it hits him.

Jisung makes his way over to them, picking crab meat out of his hair. “Hey, thanks for the help. I wouldn’t have made it without you, seriously.”

All Felix manages in reply is a non-committal noise, too grumpy to muster up a proper response, and Jisung eyes him critically. "You okay? You seem kinda down."

"I'm fine," Felix means to say, except he's drowned out by Innie, loudly announcing: "Felix has a crush!"

"Innie!" Felix yells, trying to catch him out of the air to shut him up, but Innie just laughs as he dodges Felix’s hands.

"Oookay?" Jisung says, watching them with confusion written all over his face. "And that's…bad?"

"It's not," Felix sighs, plopping down on the ground and pulling a face at the state of his uniform. It'll be good as new the next time he transforms, and he'd really like to change back now, but there's all kinds of goo all over him, and he doesn't want to ruin his regular clothes. Maybe he should just jump into the river to clean it off.

Jisung sits down next to him with a sigh of his own, looking out over the city skyline, and for a moment both of them are silent. Innie settles on Felix's head, his breath gently ruffling Felix's hair. It's comfortable. Soothing.

"So," Jisung breaks the quiet after a couple of minutes. "Wanna talk about it?"

Felix pulls a face, leaning back on his hands and staring up at the clouds passing by, painted pink and red by the last remnants of the sunset.

“I don’t know, man. Everything is just so much all the time. I never had to deal with this shit back in Australia,” he says, petulant, and Jisung laughs beside him.

“I feel you. Back when I first met Minho-hyung and realized I had these powers I was like, holy shit, this is so cool, but now it’s just fight after fight after fight. Where do all these monsters even come from? I don’t have time for this!”

“Exactly!” Felix says. “It’s not like I have much free time in the first place, between school and everything else. I just want, like, one monster-free day a week. Is that really too much to ask?”

“You think we can negotiate for vacation days?” Jisung asks, almost comically serious, and Felix grins, punching him in the arm.

“Yeah, I’m sure the Lord of Chaos wouldn’t mind.”

His good humour fades quickly, though, because, jokes aside, he’s tired and stressed and in desperate need of a break. He bites his lip, hesitating, but in the end he figures that if there’s anyone who gets what he’s going through, it’s Jisung. They're the same age, and they're both new to this, and even though they've only known each other for a couple of weeks, Felix feels like he can trust him.

“I just don’t get it, y’know? Why me? Why do I have to do this? It constantly puts me in danger, and I have to lie to my friends and family all the time and I just— I’m just— I’m so sick of it.”

Felix sighs heavily, dragging his hands over his face. It hasn’t even been six months yet and he‘s already exhausted. He has no idea how his senior magical girls deal with this, and some of them have been doing this for years.

Jisung makes a sympathetic noise, but other than that, he stays silent. Felix appreciates it. He needs some time to organize his jumbled thoughts.

“There’s this guy,” he continues eventually, a bit self-conscious. “Changbinnie-hyung. He’s my sunbae at school, and I really like him, and I finally worked up the courage to ask him out, you know? And I have it all planned out! I know exactly what I want to say! But every single time I try to get it over with there's some sort of magical girl emergency."

At this point, Felix is half-convinced that destiny has it out for him, because the number of times he's been interrupted doesn't even seem statistically possible anymore.

He just feels empty, resigned, and at the same time he feels ridiculous for being so upset about this.

Innie nuzzles into his hair in a gesture of silent comfort, and Felix smiles weakly, reaching up to pet his wings.

“I don’t know. Maybe it’s just not meant to be. And I shouldn’t be complaining, really. All this,” he says, with a vague, all-encompassing hand gesture, “Is obviously way more important than my dumb crush.”

"Fuck that!" Jisung exclaims, and Felix jumps at the force of it. "Your life doesn't come second to the fate of the world or whatever. Like, yeah, if you have the power to help people then you should, but not at the expense of your own well-being. You deserve to be happy."

Felix blinks at him, swallowing past a sudden lump in his throat.

"Dude," he says softly, "I think that's the nicest thing anyone's ever said to me."

"I do have a way with words, it's true," Jisung says, putting a humble hand to his heart before he sobers up again. "Seriously though, you're not alone in this. You know that, right? You don't need to take on more responsibility than you can handle. Between me and Minho-hyung and everyone else out there? We'll make it work. We're all in this together."

Felix sniffles, wiping away the wetness gathering in the corners of his eyes. "High School Musical?" he asks weakly, and Jisung grins.

"It's a classic for a reason."

“I’ll help, too!” Innie pipes up, sounding like he’s close to crying as well, which would be really sweet if he wasn’t about to rip Felix’s hair out from how hard he’s pulling at it. “I’m sorry I’m so weak. I’m gonna work really hard to get all my magic back and then I’m gonna be the strongest guardian in all five dimensions!”

“Thank you,” Felix says, wincing as he plucks Innie off his head. For someone so tiny, he has a surprisingly strong grip. “And you don’t have to apologize. I know all of this is new for you, too.”

Innie sniffs, a pout on his face. “Just you wait. One day I’ll be so powerful that the monsters will be too scared to even step foot on this world, and then you and Soobin can go drink milkshakes in peace or whatever.”

“Changbin,” Felix corrects, and then he squints, because that one wasn’t even close. “Are you doing this on purpose?”

“Nope,” Innie says, which is clearly a lie.

"I wish I had a magical sidekick, too" Jisung says wistfully, reaching out to scratch Innie’s ears, and Innie doesn't even protest being called a sidekick for once. “Seriously though, you're not alone. We have your back. Now go get your man!”

“Okay,” Felix says quietly, and then, “Alright!" a bit firmer, before he pauses, looking down at himself. “Just maybe not when I’m covered in monster crab guts.”

“Ah,” Jisung says, “Good call.”

After his talk with Jisung, and an impromptu High School Musical marathon later that night, Felix feels much more ready to face the world again.

So maybe the last couple of weeks have been a bit much, but Felix has always been an optimist at heart. He'll get stronger with time, and one day they'll defeat the Lord of Chaos and restore peace to this world.

But not today. Today, Felix has other plans, and he’s taken every possible precaution to make sure that nothing will get in his way.

It’s the weekend, and Minho is out on patrol, bribed with promises of a month’s worth of bubble tea if only he keeps trouble away from them. Innie is with Minho as well, giving Felix an unprecedented level of privacy as he makes his way down the street.

He briefly considered enlisting the help of his (clueless, bless him) brother, but in the end he just called up Changbin himself, asking him to come to the park that sits more or less at equal distance between their houses.

Changbin agreed so readily that Felix didn’t even have to use any of the excuses Jisung had helped him come up with, and now he is once again back to wondering if maybe, just maybe, his chances might be better than he’d hoped.

He blushes despite himself, shaking his head at his own wishful thinking, and pulls his scarf tighter around his neck as he steps past the park gate. It’s unusually chilly for this time of year, so there aren’t really any people around. When he makes it to the playground at the center it’s empty except for a lone figure sitting on one of the swings, and Felix smiles and picks up the pace when he recognizes it as Changbin, face buried in the collar of his jacket and a beanie shoved over his hair.

“Changbinnie-hyung!” he calls out, and Changbin perks up when he hears him, taking his hands out of his pockets to wave at Felix.

“Hey,” he says once Felix is close enough, “Why’d you want to meet here of all places? It’s freezing.”

He doesn’t actually look like he wants to move, but Felix falters anyway. “Ah, sorry. We could...go somewhere else?”

Changbin grins at him. “Nah, you know I’m just teasing,” he says, feet kicking lazily against the ground to sway back and forth.

He jerks his chin at the second swing next to his, but instead of taking a seat, Felix steps directly in front of Changbin, reaching out to hold onto the metal chain and halt the swing’s movement. Changbin’s knees bump into Felix’s legs, and he leans his head back to look Felix in the eyes, questioning.

Felix bites his lip, staring right back at him.

He's still nervous, of course, but at this point he's mostly just impatient, and he doesn't want to waste any more time than he already has.

“Hyung, I— There’s something I need to tell you,” he says, as steadily as he can.

“Yeah, I thought that might be why we’re here,” Changbin says, reaching up to brush his hand against Felix’s. He’s so easily affectionate that it hurts sometimes, because Felix can never read the intentions behind it. But hopefully he’ll be able to clear it up once and for all today.

Felix takes one last deep breath, trying to calm his nerves, and then he opens his mouth, because he’s as ready as he’ll ever be.

So of course that’s when a giant fucking fox monster crashes right into them.

Felix goes flying, his head only missing the metal post of the swing set by a hair, and then the momentum sends him rolling along the ground until his back hits the edge of the slide at a truly unfortunate angle.

“Fuck,” he hisses, screwing his eyes shut against the pain and the vertigo, and it takes him a good minute to get his breathing back under control. He groans as he slowly pushes himself up onto his hands, trying to get his bearings, and the first thing he sees when he can open his eyes again is a familiar flash of colour.

Minho performs a neat mid-air flip before he lands on the ground in front of Felix. Innie is clinging to the ribbons that trail from his waist, holding on for dear life, while Soonie lands next to them on soft feet, tail raised and ears flat against her head.

“Yo,” Minho says, and Felix stares at him from where he’s still sprawled on the ground.

“‘Yo’?” he repeats, incredulous. “Hyung, what the hell? I told you I was busy today! You said you’d take care of it!”

“Sorry,” Minho says, gritting his teeth together, and only then does Felix notice his split lip and the scrapes on his arms and legs. Minho’s staff, usually never out of his hands, is nowhere to be seen. “This one turned out to be a bit more persistent than I thought.”

Felix feels bad for snapping at him almost immediately, but he doesn’t even have time to think of apologizing before Soonie says, “Look there!”

Felix’s head snaps up, and when he sees what she means, he gasps, terrified.

"Binnie-hyung!"

For all that their demonic adversaries are set on taking over the world and causing as much harm along the way as possible, there are thankfully very few human casualties involved.

There’s been a couple possessions here and there, which are a real pain in the ass to deal with, and the odd passers-by who need to be carried out of the way when they faint at the sight of whatever monster has decided to grace them with its presence this week.

Perhaps it’s a bit weird that the vast majority of their confrontations take place in, like, abandoned amusement parks in the dead of night, or whatever, but Felix is cool with that.

But this? Felix isn’t fucking cool with this.

Changbin looks unconscious, body limp and small in the monster’s hold, wrapped up in one of its many tails, and if he has even one scratch on him Felix is going to go ballistic.

“Unveil!” he all but screams, thrusting his key into the air, and then he’s moving before the transformation even has time to settle in fully.

Minho is by his side in an instant, and they only have to share one quick look before Minho nods and says, “Get him out of there.” Then he veers off abruptly to try and draw the monster’s attention.

Innie’s wings flutter wildly to keep up with Felix, and the two of them cut around to flank the enemy, trying to stay clear of the rest of its tails. Felix thinks there might be nine of them, gumiho style, but it’s not like he can stop to count them.

He bites back a yelp as he dodges one of them, jumping out of the way and almost crashing into an inconveniently located tree, too busy keeping track of Changbin to focus on his surroundings. There’s plenty of space around them, at least, so the only thing the monster has done damage to is the playground equipment.

It’s trying its damndest to do damage to Minho, though, and Felix can hear him cursing up a storm as he fights back. It’s good that the distraction is working, at least, but between the erratic way it moves as it tries to swipe at Minho, and the way each of the fox's tails is moving like it has a mind of its own, Felix has no idea how he’s going to get close enough to get Changbin out of there.

His first attempt gets him a tail to the stomach, on his second he almost ends up trampled, and before he can even try for a third he has to avoid the remains of the swing set being hurled his way.

“Fuck,” Felix gasps, already out of breath, and he’s so frustrated that he could cry. For a moment he considers just using his scepter to blast through, but he doesn’t know what its power would do to a normal person, and the risk of hitting Changbin is way too high.

“What am I gonna do?” he asks, desperate, and he’s not expecting a reply, but he gets one anyway.

“I’ll take care of it,” Innie says, determined.

“What?”

Felix doesn’t realize what’s happening until it’s too late. “Innie, no!” he yells after him, but by then he’s already too far away, easily zipping past the thrashing tails that proved too fast for Felix, wings moving so quickly they're a barely visible blur.

Felix has no idea what he's planning, and so he can only stare, wide-eyed, as Innie reaches Changbin, clings onto the red fur of the tail that's holding him up, and chomps down.

Innie may be small, but his teeth are sharp, and amplified with his magic, it's enough to make the fox monster roar and loosen its grip on Changbin.

He drops, fast, and Felix barely manages to get there in time to catch him, the sudden impact almost sending him to his knees, all breath punched out of him.

“Go!” Innie yells at him, now buzzing around the monster’s head like a particularly determined fly as it rages and tries to catch hold of him. Felix can only spare him a second of worry before he runs off, conscious of how vulnerable he is with Changbin weighing him down.

“I can’t believe that actually worked!” he says under his breath, slightly hysterical at this point.

He scans their surroundings for shelter and hesitates when his eyes land on a small pavilion — the pillars holding up the roof seem sturdy enough, but a stray fox tail might still be able to crush them.

Before he can come to a decision however, Changbin starts stirring in his arms, letting out an unintelligible noise, and Felix almost drops him in surprise. He thought Changbin was still knocked out and about to stay that way until Felix had time to deal with the fight and change back, but apparently luck is just not on his side today. He panics, trying to decide if he should just dump Changbin here and make a run for it, but by then it’s already too late.

Changbin groans as he blinks his eyes open, so Felix hurries to set him down on the ground. His legs are shaky, but after a moment he can stand upright on his own. He doesn’t seem injured, which is good, and he also isn’t screaming at Felix, which is appreciated.

“Are you—” Felix asks, remembering a moment too late that he should at least try to disguise his voice a bit, “Are you okay?”

“Yeah,” Changbin says weakly, and there’s no reaction when his eyes sweep over Felix’s face, so for a second, he thinks he actually managed to keep his identity a secret.

Except then Changbin says, “Thank you, Felix,” and Felix freezes, because wait, what?

“You—” he starts, and then clears his throat, his hands fluttering uselessly around his face like that’s going to hide him from Changbin’s eyes. “You recognized me?”

There’s a moment where the two of them just stare at each other, and then Changbin raises his eyebrows.

"Felix," he says slowly, "You think I wouldn't recognize you just because you have pink hair and a mask? It really doesn’t hide much, you know?”

Felix does know, but he’s never worried about how little the diamond mask covers before because he’s not used to the poor bystanders who get mixed up in their fights being _conscious_.

“But you—” he starts, feeling a blush creep up all the way to his ears. Oh god, why did Changbin of all people have to see him like this? How is he supposed to explain literally any of this to him? Felix is going to yeet himself into the ocean. Not that there's an ocean anywhere nearby, but Felix will go all the way to Busan and walk right into the watery embrace of death if only it'll get him out of this situation.

“How are you so calm about this?” he gets out at last.

Changbin laughs, which is nice, because Felix likes hearing Changbin laugh, but right now it's also very emotionally confusing.

"Well, it was kind of a shock when I first saw you,” Changbin says, “But that was, what, two months ago? It wasn’t too far from here, now that I think about it. I don’t know what you were fighting, but it looked kind of like a dragon?”

Changbin keeps talking, but Felix can’t hear him over the roaring in his ears. It's like his brain is stuck, struggling to process the fact that not only did Changbin see him in action, but he actually withstood whatever magic usually makes people forget what they saw. Felix didn’t think that was even possible.

“You knew?” Felix whispers, and Changbin’s expression softens as he reaches up to brush Felix’s hair out of his eyes.

“That you’re magic? That you’ve been fighting monsters?"

His fingers linger at the edge of Felix’s mask, and it’s only after Felix has given him a shaky nod that he slowly takes it off, smiling as he takes in Felix’s bare face.

"Yeah, I knew. If I hadn't, the way you're constantly running away from me would have been a lot more concerning," he jokes, and Felix gulps.

“You never said anything,” Felix stammers, but then his eyes widen when something else suddenly occurs to him.

"Wait, those times I tried to talk to you, did you think—"

"That you were trying to tell me about this? Yeah, kinda," Changbin says, and Felix can't help the way his heart sinks at that, because it puts so many of their recent interactions in an entirely new light. He can't believe he got his hopes up when Changbin was just trying to encourage him to share his secret identity.

But then Changbin fidgets, avoiding Felix's eyes as he says, "Though part of me was really hoping you might be trying to tell me something else."

It takes Felix a moment to get what he's saying, and then his mouth drops open in shock. The emotional whiplash is strong enough to leave him reeling, and he ends up making a wordless noise of panicked confusion, like some kind of error message: Warning! Does not compute!

Changbin glances back up at him, biting his lip, his face flushed red in a way that Felix is sure must be mirrored on his own, because he feels hot and flustered and altogether a bit overwhelmed.

And okay, maybe Felix can be a bit dense sometimes, but there's no way he's misreading this.

He opens and closes his mouth a couple of times, but he doesn't really know how to translate an endless row of question and exclamation marks into actual human words. So in the end what he blurts out is, "Hyung, can I kiss you?"

It’s nothing like the careful confessions he’d planned. No speeches, no big, romantic gestures, but Felix can't bring himself to care about that. Not when Changbin grins at him, a little bit shy but a lot excited.

"Thought you'd never ask," he says, leaning in and reaching out to rest one hand at the back of Felix's head, fingers winding through his hair, and then he pulls Felix down to bring their lips together in a soft kiss.

It's a barely there touch, over in seconds, and yet it sends electricity through his entire body, right down to his fingertips. They part slowly, and Felix kind of wants to pinch himself to make sure this isn't a dream, but that would mean letting go of Changbin, so he doesn't.

"Holy shit," he breathes out, and then he has to bury his face in Changbin’s neck for a second, suppressing a burst of nervous giggles.

"Yeah," Changbin agrees. His heart is beating wildly — Felix can tell from the way they're pressed together — but his hands are steady, drawing slow circles across Felix's back.

“You could have said something," Felix says eventually, still a bit hung up on that.

"Ah, well," Changbin says, clearing his throat. "Didn’t want to steal your thunder."

Felix does laugh then, giddy and relieved and almost dizzy with it. It’s taken him months to get here, and they haven’t actually talked about anything yet, but he knows things will work out eventually. They have time.

“Hey!”

Minho’s very loud and very annoyed voice startles Felix out of the nice moment they had going on, and he turns to see the monster still alive and kicking. Oh right. He knew he’d forgotten about something.

“If you’re done canoodling, can you maybe give me a hand over here? No hurry or anything.”

The sarcasm is palpable, and Felix winces, turning an apologetic look on Changbin.

“Sorry, I—”

“Go,” Changbin says, thumb sweeping across Felix’s cheek in an unbearably affectionate motion. “I’ll still be here when you’re done saving the day.”

“Okay,” Felix says, his hands lingering on Changbin’s arms, reluctant to let go.

But then Changbin smirks and says, "Also you look really cute in this outfit," and oh wow, Felix really does need to go now. Monsters to fight, and all that.

"Thanks," he chokes out and runs off, but not before stealing his mask back and pressing a quick kiss to Changbin’s cheek. It’s a bold move, but it’s worth it for the look on Changbin’s face.

Innie meets him halfway, looking a bit worse for wear but mostly just incredibly smug, which Felix supposes is deserved after his earlier stunt.

"Thank you, Innie," he says, and he really means it.

Innie acts nonchalant even as his chest puffs up, clearly proud of himself. "You can thank me once we've actually defeated this thing. Ready?"

“Yeah,” Felix starts, but then he hesitates. “Wait, one more thing.”

He turns back towards the pavilion to find Changbin looking their way, and his heart skips a beat when their eyes meet. Changbin tilts his head in question, so Felix grins, taking a deep breath before he yells, “Hyung! Will you go out with me?”

Changbin just laughs, delighted. “Obviously!” he yells back, and then he gives Felix the dorkiest finger hearts known to man. God, Felix likes him so much.

He takes a second to send a heart in return, but then he really needs to get going if he doesn’t want Minho to strangle him, so he turns back to Innie, already buzzing with energy, because right now, he feels like he could take on anything.

“Now I’m ready,” he says with a smile so bright it could rival the sun, and jumps back into the fight. Time to save the world and kick some ass.


End file.
